


Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

by timepatches



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Multi, Songfic, i'm still not sorry though, implied internal homophobia, so much fluff i'm literally unable to write anything else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2015-11-10
Packaged: 2018-05-01 00:49:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5185904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timepatches/pseuds/timepatches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s sugar-high Between Grumps time, and there’s dancing to a rather obscure eighties hit. Cuteness ensues.</p><p>Songfic ficlet  set to Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick by Ian Dury!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

**Author's Note:**

> I had this song in my head for an unholy length of time, and I couldn't get the image of the Grumps dancing around to it out of my head (blame Danny and his elderly music taste), so I turned it into fluffy goodness. You're welcome!
> 
> The song in question:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WGVgfjnLqc

It’s Between Grumps, and they’ve eaten just slightly more sugar than is healthy.

Controllers and wires and who-knows-what are in a tangled mess in front of the TV, one bowl of strange Japanese candy half fallen-over on the floor and another of Skittles balancing precariously on the edge of the table, but they’re too busy giggling, Arin gasping for air, to notice.

‘Dude!!’ Danny said, suddenly flailing his phone in Arin’s face. ‘I just remembered I have to play you this song, it’s the freaking best!’

Before Arin can focus enough to respond the song is blaring tinnily out of Danny’s iPhone, and Danny is singing and dancing wildly while trying not to knock anything off the wall. Why the hell whoever this eighties guy is singing in other languages now is beyond Arin - and the closer he listens, the more he realises that there appear to be many layers to this song, and they are  _all_ ridiculous - but the laughter and Danny’ joy is infectious and Arin’s buoyed by the sugar high, so suddenly the grump room is full of both of their uncoordinated dancing and unstoppable, sugar-driven giggling.

_Hit me with your rhythym stick!_  
_Hit me slowly, hit me quick!  
_ _Hit me! Hit me! Hit… me!_

The song bops through another ridiculous verse and Arin’s in pain from laughing so he pauses, panting for air, hands resting on his knees as he looks up at his other Grump.

Too soon, he’s panting for a different reason.

Danny’s eyes are closed now and he’s jerking his hips to the ridiculous synth-driven rhythm, mouthing along, and even though his arms are flailing wildly, the regular, hourglass movement of his hips is intoxicating. For some reason, right now Arin’s having some trouble compartmentalising this as ‘silly, goofy Dan dancing’ (god help him if he thinks about That instagram video for too long right now), and, mortifyingly, there’s an answering twitch in his basketball shorts.

_Oh god. No. Not now._

Any other time, he’s been able to hide it, or at least pass it off as a joke, but right now there’s nothing between him and the tightly locked-away thoughts he thought he’d dealt with months ago, and in a wave of flushing embarrassment it’s all too much to handle. The pressure in his shorts, as if to spite him, only grows worse, and suddenly all his senses are on edge and everything’s far too loud and abrasive; the song isn’t funny anymore, he’s uncomfortable, and all he wants is to be alone so he can beat himself into submission one way or another. But he can’t leave. Not without making it obvious to Danny that something was wrong, and besides, if he can’t even drag his eyes away from the other man he sure as hell can’t make himself drag his body out of the room either.

Then, of course, it gets worse.

Danny, still blissfully unaware of the tent in Arin’s shorts, comes down in a wheezing flurry from his giggling fit, still moving to the music in that stupidly entrancing way. And then, his eyes open.

He can tell something’s wrong immediately - Arin can read him so easily, he always has, Danny might as well have his thoughts glow right out of his forehead - but then his eyes flash downwards. For a tiny instant, panic flashes in the other man’s eyes, and there’s a foreboding lurch in Arin’s gut, but it’s gone as soon as Arin even sees it and he’s sucked completely into the sudden magnetism of Danny’s eyes.

Danny isn’t scared. He’s not leaving the room and slamming doors and snapping back into that old rhetoric of exactly how not-gay he was.

He’s… smirking?

‘Well, it’s not like I was dancing for you, baby,’ he says airily, a little too quick and breathless to completely pretend this was normal. (Talking in-depth about butt sex? Normal. Cuddling together on the couch? Normal. This?  _Not_ normal.) ‘But y’know, if you’re into it, I guess…’

And then, Danny takes a step forward.

That’s apparently where his false bravado runs out, though, and although he hasn’t completely dropped the confident smirk there’s a sheepish light in Danny’s eyes that tells Arin maybe he hadn’t quite thought through this far, and perhaps he might be just a little scared of where this was going - it’s not like they’ve never been here before, but the obvious tent in Arin’s pants somewhat gives away the fact that this isn’t a joke anymore.

_Fuck it._

Arin snaps his mouth shut and with two purposeful strides he’s across the Grump room, relishing the little pulse of danger being this close and actually knowing exactly how far this could go gives him.

‘Thought I saw you hesitate for a second there,’ he says, resting his forearms on Danny’s shoulders. Now it was  _his_ turn to pretend to be nonchalant when internally he was electrified. ‘Were you gonna puss out?’

The attempted bravado-purr is suddenly gone from Danny’s voice and he relaxes back to normal, chuckling as he rests his forehead against Arin’s in a final goodbye to pretending to be confident. Arin can’t help but marvel at how easy it feels to fit together so perfectly.

‘Maybe.’

‘Fuck it adjustment?’

‘...Maybe.’

‘Daa-aaan!’ Arin’s head rolls sideways in mock frustration.

‘Okay, okay,’ grins Danny, eyes crinkling in the way they do only for Arin. As he forms an answer, so slowly Arin could swear he can hear the cogs turning, Danny’s mouth twists as he grows thoughtful, more sober. More honest. Arin wants the honesty to scare him, wants to force himself to brace for impact, but he can’t bring himself to feel any emotion other than hope anymore, and it’s so incandescent that he doesn’t even want to try.

‘Maybe I’ve lo- liked you for a long time now and decided that maybe if you were interested it was time to give it a shot, no matter what a tiny part of me thinks, y’know?’

Arin ignores the little slip, as much as he’s doing a vibrant dance inside, and bides his time a little longer, drawing out the moment even though it’s agony after wanting this for so long. He draws it further out of something not quite fear, but apprehension, out of having imagined this moment far too many times to really believe it was happening. Deep down, Arin knew he must be dreaming.

‘I care what all of you thinks,’ he wheedles, winding his hand lightly into the mass of curls at the nape of Danny’s neck and basking in the warm little thrill that they’re touching like this, finally they’re  _allowed_ to touch like this and it can mean exactly what Arin means it to for once.

‘I’m glad. Because all of me is totally saying that I should kiss you right now.’

‘Yeah?’

Arin finally dares to look up, and Danny’s grin has melted completely into something warm and soft, gazing at him like it’s the first time they’ve ever seen each other’s faces. The amount of sheer, undiluted love in his gaze is enough to make Arin weak at the knees, and he can’t wait any longer, giving in to the magnetism that’s pulled them close for so long.

The saxophone is still wailing tinnily from Danny’s phone, which, to be honest, would sorta ruin the moment if it was with Suzy, but it isn’t. It so, wildly  _isn’t_ Suzy.   
Danny’s the one kissing him, careful and tender, sweetly and slowly enough that Arin feels like he’s drowning in his touch. Danny’s the one running his fingers gently along Arin’s jaw as if he’s worried he’ll break. Danny’s stubble is what’s scratching against his. Danny’s the one swaying on his feet, sighing against him like he’s been away for years and has finally come home.

Arin’s drowning and shattering and melting completely, and suddenly it’s almost too much. He’s banished this part of himself for too long now, locked away this tiny part of his heart that would somehow always be in love with Dan Avidan, and as their lips move together tentatively Arin can feel tears welling up in the corners of his eyes - seems it’s one embarrassment after the next today - but he can’t bring himself to care.

They break for air.

Danny swipes away the moisture from Arin’s cheek with one of his big doofy thumbs and Arin’s eyes flutter closed, trying vainly to make something coherent out of the overwhelming ocean of words and feelings his mind is swimming in.

‘Love you.’   
_Close enough.  
_ ‘Love you too, big cat.’

Another brush of lips, Danny smiling breathlessly against him, and then, Arin knows he’s awake.

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate summary: EVERYTHING IS WARM AND SOFT AND GAY THE END
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
> Feedback welcome <33


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